


A Grey Warden

by redlizard_rambles



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 18:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21281414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlizard_rambles/pseuds/redlizard_rambles
Summary: A quick little blurb thought of Arethea Mahariel finally feeling like a Grey Warden.
Relationships: Alistair/Female Mahariel (Dragon Age), Alistair/Female Warden (Dragon Age)





	A Grey Warden

Alistair wore it first. After we left Soldier’s Peak I wanted him to have it. He looked good in it. Looked like the Warden Commander I thought he could be.

He didn’t want Fereldan. Didn’t want to be king. I wouldn’t push that on him. I cared too much for him. For this human man who was goofy and alien to me. The way his smile reached his eyes, even in horrifying moments. The thick of battle, our eyes would meet and his smile seemed to say, “this again?” I couldn’t help but fall in love.

They all said I was their leader. And in a way I had brought everyone together. But I was no leader. I was a coward. I let everyone talk me out of trying to find Tamlen. I abandoned my clan to save myself. Duncan swore up and down that he recruited me for my skill, but I still felt like a pity take. A Dalish woman in the Grey Wardens? Practically unheard of.

But once the Archdemon laid dead, and the Blight over, Alistair would start the Grey Wardens again. He would lead them to glory. I would slip back to the shadows of the forests and find my clan, or find a new clan or make a home until my time came to return to the Creators.

I smiled politely whenever someone called me “Warden” like an honor or an insult depending on whose lips it fell from, but I wasn’t a warden not really.

Then we found the Urn of Scared Ashes and the Gauntlet shoved Tamlen in my face and made me face my greatest regret.

“Those that survive must go on living. You have suffered enough, thinking that you could have done something. It is time to leave that behind.”

That still stung. “Thinking I could have done something.” Couldn’t I have? I should have stopped him from going into that cave in the first place, dragged him back to camp kicking and screaming if I had to.

Maybe I just hadn’t been strong enough before. But I saw too many things to let me stay soft. Saw a Keeper twisted by time and hate almost let his clan die. Watched the man I love get crushed by someone he wanted to call family. Saw Leliana lose herself to a life she thought she left behind.

Alistair was fine with it. He’d already traded in the Warden armor for Calin’s. He still insisted he didn’t want to be king, but something changed in him when Goldana turned out to be a stranger and not a sister. The way he tried not to smile as I slid the armor over my tunic made me blush. Like he knew something I didn’t.

“I am going to miss the skin your Dalish armor showed.” He threw in, as the breastplate settled onto my chest.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, turning to hide my smile. I knew it was foolish running into every battle in my hunter gear, but it felt free and even the fear of death wasn’t enough to allow me to cover it up.

I pulled the greaves on, the heavy metal felt alien from my light leather boots.

I started to pull my gauntlets on, and felt a hand on my last bit of bare skin.

“Wait,” Alistair looked at me shyly. He bent his head, never breaking eye contact with me and kissed the insides of each wrist before sliding each gauntlet over my hands.

I shivered from the intensity of his gaze and closed my fists, feeling the weight of the armor settle in.

I placed Starfang on my back, then Duncan’s dagger, feeling the magic flow through each blade.

Alistair placed a hand on the small of my back, I was surprised I could still feel it through the metal plate.

“You ready?”

I nodded cautiously and stepped from the tent, finally a Grey Warden.


End file.
